This invention relates to disposal of contaminated items, and in particular to a disposal system for use in a hospital or similar environment where contaminated items must be collected and disposed of without creating a hazard for patients or hospital personnel.
In hospitals, clinics and similar medical institutions, contamination continues to be of utmost concern. With the prevention of the spread of communicable diseases being a major priority, disposable, single use patient-use care products have become quite prevalent. Those items, once used, are contaminated and can readily transmit disease. They include items such as hypodermic needles and other sharps, and are required to be disposed of at their point of usage under current guidelines of the United States Centers for Disease Control. In U.S. Pat. Re. No. 33,413, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,728, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, sharps disposal systems are described. The present invention is an improvement over those systems.